The NCAA National Rifle Championships will be held at UAF March 9-10 in the Patty Center. The Alaska Nanooks rifle team was undefeated in the regular season and will shoot against Jacksonville State University, the University of Kentucky, Murray State University, the University of Nebraska and Texas Christian University in team competition. Freshman shooter Layne Lewis qualified for the individual smallbore three-position competition. For more information visit
www.alaskananooks.com.
The UA Museum of the North was featured in the January issue of Architectural Record.
Edie Curry, Fire Chief of the University Fire Department, will speak during a national teleconference hosted by United Educators about implementing a campus fire safety program. Curry was recommended due to her fire safety efforts at UAF.
Poker Flat Research Range successfully launched a rocket for the Rocket Observation of Pulsating Aurora experiment Feb. 12 and four rockets for the HEX2 experiment Feb. 14, making a total of nine launches to date for this season. The range has one more rocket scheduled as part of this campaign. It is ready to launch as soon as condition are right for the experiment. For more information visit www.pfrr.alaska.edu.
The Inu-Yupiaq Dance Group, a UAF student dance club that performs traditional Inupiaq and Yup 'ik Eskimo songs and motion dances, participated in a live performance for the 56th Conference of the University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies using the ARSC Discovery Lab and access to the latest Access Grid Internet technology.
Debbie Toopetlook is the new director of Rural Student Services. Toopetlook has served as interim director since September 2006.
Emily Drygas has been named senior development officer for UAF. Drygas has served as the development director at the UA Museum of the North for four years. She begins her new duties March 5.
Scott Nacke was recently hired as the UA Museum of the North's fine arts collection manager.
Elizabeth Allman, John Rhodes and Sergei Avdonin, all CNSM, have been recognized for their research expertise with invitations to visit two prestigious mathematical institutions. Allman and Rhodes were invited to the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus. Allman and Avdonin will be visiting at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge.
Judith Kleinfeld's, CLA, book Go For It: Finding Your Own Frontier is slated to be the foundation for a Dutch television program. Kleinfeld helped write the script for the program and was filmed reading from her book and speaking about her research.
University Marketing and Publications' team won first place at the Literacy Council's annual BizBee spelling competition Feb. 15. The team consisted of LJ Evans, Jackie Stormer and Tori Tragis, and was sponsored by Dr. Phyllis Pendergrast.
Richard Carr, CLA, participated in a roundtable discussion on Research Opportunities in Australian Literature at the MLA annual conference in Philadelphia in December 2006.
Summer Sessions is offering something new in 2007, the Maymester. The Maymester is a two-week intensive session that runs May 14-25. Students can earn three credits by attending class five days a week for four hours each day. For more information visit www.uaf.edu/summer/.
Alaska Sea Grant is offering more than a dozen new titles in 2007. The new titles include the Field Guide to Sharks, Skates and Ratfish of Alaska, which is the most comprehensive overview of Alaska's cartilaginous fishes ever produced, and the 2008 Alaska Coastal Calendar, which has an International Polar Year theme. For more information visit http://seagrant.uaf.edu/bookstore/.
Spring break takes place March 12-16. Most campus offices will be open March 12-15 and closed on March 16.
The first annual Instructional Technology Day, presented by OIT, takes place March 2 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. in Wood Center. There will be presentations and tours throughout the day by vendors, faculty and staff. Door prizes will be given away at 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. For more information visit www.alaska.edu/itday/.
Da-Ka-Xeen Mehner presents Reinterpretation, his M.F.A. thesis art exhibition in the UAF Art Gallery through March 16 with his thesis defence and artist talk March 5 at 1 p.m. in the Rasmuson Library media classroom, room 340.
The UA Museum of the North is hosting the lecture "The International Polar Year: Past, Present and Future" by Carl Benson, professor emeritus, and colleagues March 6 at 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information visit www.uaf.edu/museum/.
The Office of Information Technology is hosting training opportunities throughout the semester, including MS Excel I March 7, MS Access I March 8 and QMenu March 13. For more information or to register visit www.alaska.edu/oit/training/.
Music at One, free recitals by UAF music students, take place throughout the semester on Thursdays from 1-2 p.m. in the Davis Concert Hall. Admission is free. For more information call 7555.
The Drums of Winter, a film co-directed by Leonard Kamerling, museum, will be shown March 10-18 at 2 p.m. in the museum. The film presents the spiritual world of Yup'ik dance, music and reciprocal gift giving and was named to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress in December 2006.
The IPY Visiting Author's series presents Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth March 12 and Dava Sobel, author of The Planets, Galileo's Daughter, and Longitude March 19, both at 7 p.m. in Davis Concert Hall. Admission is free. For more information call 5479 or visit www.uaf.edu/ipy/.
The UA Museum of the North presents "The Little Things that Run the World" by Derek Sikes, museum, March 22 at 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information visit www.uaf.edu/museum/.
Outdoor Adventures is sponsoring spring semester trips including Intro to Ice Climbing March 24. For more information call 6027 or visit www.uaf.edu/outdoor/.
The UAF campus peace walk takes place every Wednesday from noon -1 p.m., starting at the museum. For more information contact Abel Bult-Ito at 7158 or ffab@uaf.edu.
The Nature and Art of Collections, the UA Museum of the North's special exhibit, runs through April 29. The exhibit illustrates the breadth and depth of the museum's holdings, which has 1.4 million artifacts and specimens.
UA received $3.06 million from BP and $3.68 million from ConocoPhillips as donations to the UA Foundation under the charter agreement with the state. This brings total donations to UA under the agreement to $29.5 million since 2000.
Steffi Ickert-Bond and Gordon Jarrell, museum, received $255,473 from the National Science Foundation to help store and record the museum's herbarium specimens.
Dan Odess, museum, received a $12,500 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rehouse the collection from Anangula, the oldest known archaeological site in the Aleutian Islands.
Flint Hills Resources Alaska gave $166,000 to fund two experimental economics projects to study decision-making behaviors, purchase portable computer lab equipment and support graduate student positions.
The 2007 Angus Gavin Memorial Migratory Bird Research Grant recipients are Travis Booms and Justine Sears, both graduate students at UAF.
March 2, 2007: Nominations for the UAF Exceptional Student Employee Award are due. For more information call 7596 or visit www.uaf.edu/career/.
March 15, 2007: Application materials for the ARSC Undergraduate Research Challenge Summer Intern Program are due. For more information visit www.arsc.edu/programs/interns/.
March 15, 2007: All application materials for May 2007 graduation and a $50 fee are due. Applications can be found at www.uaf.edu/reg/forms/graduation.pdf. For more information call 7523.
March 20, 2007: Proposals for the People's Endowment grants are due. For more information contact 6402 or fygive@uaf.edu.
Vision Task Force
An event will be happening March 6-7 on our campus that will play a crucial role in determining what America's arctic university--the University of Alaska Fairbanks--will be like in the year 2017.
Fifty-five leaders from Alaska and across the country will convene on campus as part of our Vision Task Force. Their task is to assist in developing ideas and recommendations on how our university can become one of the best arctic research and teaching universities in the world by the time we celebrate our 100th anniversary in 10 years. Among those 55 leaders are 21 UAF faculty, staff and students who will be contributing their time and knowledge to make this endeavor a successful one.
The task force will convene its initial meeting at 1p.m. March 6. We will begin by providing the group with information on the university, our students, research, outreach and community engagement, staff and faculty, and philanthropic efforts. The public and campus community are more than welcome to stop by and listen as we get started. Members will then break into working groups in each one of those areas, where group co-chairs will present information that is more specific to aid in preparing recommendations. The group will reconvene Wednesday, March 7 and determine the next steps.
From March to June, the working groups will meet to develop their ideas and suggestions. Their recommendations will be posted on the task force website at www.uaf.edu/vision2017/ for public review and comment. A report of recommendations will be drafted over the summer and presented to UAF in September 2007.
I hope you'll participate in this process and support the task force in their important work.
I am confident that by the year 2017, we'll look back at the past 10 years as a decade of distinction on the way to international prominence--a significant accomplishment to celebrate our 100th anniversary!
